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Native geckos - Source: ONE News -
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A jail sentence handed down to a German visitor who pleaded guilty to possessing New Zealand geckos has been welcomed by the Wildlife Enforcement Group.
German Manfred Walter Bachmann, a 55-year-old engineer living in Kampala, Uganda, was on Wednesday sentenced in Christchurch District Court to 15 weeks in jail for his role in a wildlife smuggling venture.
He was caught with 16 protected jewelled geckos in his backpack in February and pleaded guilty to the Wildlife Act charges at his first court appearance.
Co-accused Swiss national Thomas Price on Wednesday pleaded guilty to possessing absolutely protected wildlife, and Spaniard Gustavo Toldedo-Albarrans pleaded guilty to hunting absolutely protected wildlife.
Both are remanded in custody for sentencing on March 29.
The court was told Bachmann was handed the geckos by Price, when the animals had been packed into plastic tubes. He was meant to pass the package on to a fourth person who would have taken them out of the country. The fourth person has never been caught.
The jail term imposed on Bachmann by Judge Jane Farish on Wednesday is one week longer than the sentence for another German national, Hans Kurt Kubus, who was caught at Christchurch International Airport with 44 geckos and skinks in December.
Kubus was also fined $5,000.
The Wildlife Enforcement Group, a partnership between the Customs Service, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Department of Conservation (DOC), said Bachmann's sentencing on Wednesday sent a message that wildlife smuggling will not be taken lightly.
"It's (the sentencing) encouraging - with media interest going round the world that the message is "you'll get caught and people are ending up in prison"', says Stuart Williamson, Department of Conservation (DOC).
DOC is endorsing the idea of taking a tougher line to protect New Zealand's wildlife.
"Perhaps we should be looking at trying to raise the penalties to deter those people coming to this country," says Williamson.
Williamson said the geckos would have suffered stress from being in the plastic tubes.
Nine of the 11 female geckos are pregnant and the stress could cause them to lose their young, as happened in Kubus' case, Williamson said.
Court doesn't buy "dupe" argument
More details emerged on Wednesday about the latest Department of Conservation interception in which the department says it was "acting on information received".
Prosecutor Mike Bodie said Price and Toledo-Albarran arrived in New Zealand on February 5, rented a vehicle and drove to Dunedin where they planned to collect wildlife from Otago Peninsula for illegal export.
Over five days, Toledo-Albarran searched vegetation for the 16 animals which were later placed into plastic tubing sealed with cotton wool and tape, and with breathing apertures.
They drove back to Christchurch on February 12. Price met Bachmann and handed him the package of tubes and the men were arrested soon after.
The animals had a total value of $192,000 on the European market.
Counsel for Bachmann, Glenn Henderson, described his client as "a courier - a bit of a dupe in the middle".
But prosecutor Bodie says Bachmann's story does not add up.
"It is hard to reconcile the enormous amount of international travel he has done in the last 10 months," he says.
The Judge agreed.
"I don't buy into what he's said about being naive or being a dupe. This was clearly premeditated offending. Given his age and his travelling, he's not that naive."
The DOC had bank records showing deposits of $750 into Bachmann's account two days before his travel to New Zealand, and a later deposit from Switzerland of $1,024.
He was found with $1,200 in cash, but the judge said she was unable to order its forfeiture under the Proceeds of Crime legislation without more detail, and she declined to order that it be put towards covering the cost of prosecution.
Bodie later told Judge David Saunders the department was concerned about the risk of Price leaving the country if granted bail because it believed he had access to another passport.
Defence counsel Simon Graham applied for bail for the pair but it was refused by Judge Saunders who said prison sentences were likely, given other recent jail terms handed down "to people who hunt our wildlife for commercial gain".
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